This is my 2nd Owner Builder pool. Started dig 10/29/08 - already been in the hot tub (too much $$ to heat the whole pool, but my 8 y.o. daughter is wearing me down ;-))

Its about 23k gal, 172 ft perimeter. The back wall is 43' - nice swim lane. 3.5' to 6.5'. Walnut Travertine coping, Super Blue Diamondbrite interior. All Hayward equip. 1hp circulation, 2 hp spa, 2 hp spa blower, 1 hp water feature. Intellichlor salt system. You can see we also did 1" blue tile in the footwell of the spa - neat touch the wife thought of. You can see a bit of the shadow of the two Dolphin mosaics on the back wall, too.

My wife thought up the whole column/pergola/water feature thing - I built all of that myself. The columns are cinder block on a separate concrete footing. I found travertine tile to match the coping. The pergola is cedar. I designed/plumbed the water feature myself. It is 1 1/4' PVC water pipe running up the back of the columns, with 9 fittings switching to 1/2" copper run up and over the center wood pergola pieces. Each one is valved separately in order to even the flow of each stream. The same pump goes out the pipes on the back wall, and I have a Jandy valve to adjust flow from wall to over head, or both.

We still have to do spray-deck on the concrete, I'm putting in a small wood deck, an small outdoor kitchen, and maybe a fire pit/raised wall. Most of the goes to the right of this photo in a large side yard.

Any suggestions for landscaping behind the water feature would be appreciated. It is about 15 wide between pool and brick wall of really crappy South Texas clay soil.